From The Oregonian of Monday, Nov. 30, 1998 -- One denomination lobbies tirelessly (2nd of 3 parts): Intensive efforts by the Christian Science Church sway the debate over laws to protect faith-healing parents

From The Oregonian of Tuesday, Dec. 1, 1998 -- An Oregon case shines a light on the issue (Part 3 of 3): A boy's death focuses attention on faith healing, but there's little consensus on what Oregon's laws mean -- and less agreement on what to do next

Over the past four decades the Followers of Christ Church in Oregon City amassed one of the largest concentrations of faith-healing child deaths in the United States while district attorneys and the Legislature looked the other way.

But the Clackamas County district attorney's controversial decision this year not to prosecute the parents of an 11-year-old boy who died of untreated diabetes that pulled Oregon into a long-simmering national debate: At what point does a parent's right to exercise free religion conflict with the state's duty to protect every child's basic right to life?

Oregon is among 43 states that grant faith-healing parents sweeping immunities from prosecution on child neglect and abuse charges. It is one of only six states that grant immunity on religious grounds for manslaughter, homicide or murder by abuse.

Child advocates think Oregon's religious shield laws are some of the nation's worst. But the state's top prosecutors disagree on whether a change in the law is necessary. Two months before the 1999 Legislature convenes, no lawmaker has stepped forward to lead a review of the state's laws.

The Oregonian examined some of the most prominent battles in the United States to end child deaths among faith healers.

The groups fighting for more restrictive laws vary from state to state: Sometimes lawmakers spearhead the effort, sometimes child-advocate groups and sometimes prosecuting attorneys. In every state, however, the Christian Science Church has led lobbying efforts for religious exemptions. As a result, prosecuting faith-healing parents who refuse medical care for their ill
children has more to do with the will of prosecutors and child advocates than it does the specifics of any state's laws.

* Michigan has successfully prosecuted faith-healing parents for years. Although some of the state's laws are similar to Oregon's, there is one major difference -- Michigan has no religious shield for homicide.

* Just across the state line in Indiana, where one of the nation's largest faith-healing churches was founded more than 30 years ago, district attorneys ignored dozens of child deaths for years before eventually bringing charges against two parents. But a strong lobbying effort by the Christian Science Church helped defeat efforts to eliminate Indiana laws that protect faith-healing practices.

* In Massachusetts, home of the Christian Science Church, legislators won what many thought to be a politically impossible battle to limit religious immunities after hearing gruesome tales of painful child deaths.

* In South Dakota, one woman led a grass-roots fight that resulted in the nation's first law eliminating religious immunity for faith-healing parents.

* In Pennsylvania, despite laws that offer some immunities to faith-healing believers, prosecutors have won case after case against parents whose children died after being denied medical care. Prosecutors there frequently intervene in an attempt to save lives, as they did in the disturbing case of Patrick Foster.

In the Lord's hands

Just before Christmas 1996, 1-year-old Patrick Foster caught a bad cold. As the sniffling persisted week after week, Daniel and Anne Marie Foster did what they had always done when one of their three children got sick, they prayed the devil would be driven away.

But Patrick was not healed. As winter turned to spring, he became more lethargic and gaunt. It was March when Daniel and Anne Marie noticed the growth bulging from their son's left side.

As the growth swelled, the Fosters increased their prayers. Four times each week they attended services at Faith Tabernacle Congregation Church in north Philadelphia, asking their pastor to pray aloud for Patrick.

Regardless of how sick Patrick got, there would be no visit to a doctor. And no medical treatment, not even an aspirin. Members of Faith Tabernacle, like thousands of faith-healing Christians across the United States, trust that God, inspired by the prayers of true believers, will heal sickness and disease. To seek a doctor's care would be to turn their backs not only on
their faith, but on God himself. Patrick was in the Lord's hands, Anne Marie Foster would tell police.

But one day in early May, the Fosters' private religious beliefs came crashing through the doors of the Philadelphia prosecutor's office.

A neighbor had seen the listless boy sitting on his father's lap on the front steps. Patrick's body was so wracked by the growth that had ballooned from his kidney and attached itself to his liver and heart, that he needed his father's help just to lift his head.

The neighbor called the child abuse hot line.

Twenty-four hours from death

Social worker Michael Bonetti first looked in on Patrick only hours after the neighbor's phone call. The Fosters reluctantly let Bonetti inside their well-kept two-story brownstone.

Daniel Foster carried Patrick downstairs and laid him face down on the sofa. The boy winced, then groaned.

The growth, which at 6 pounds was now almost a third of Patrick's weight, was hidden by the rust-colored blanket pulled up over his shoulders. A pinkish rash covered the boy's cheeks and hands. His left eye was swollen shut; his lips were cracked and white from dehydration.

Bonetti urged the Fosters to rush Patrick to a hospital. They refused. The following afternoon Bonetti returned with the police and a court order demanding that the Fosters release Patrick to a doctor's care.

At St. Christopher's Hospital, doctors said Patrick likely would have died in another 24 hours. The large mass growing from his abdomen was a Wilm's tumor, a common form of childhood cancer that 90 percent of patients survive if they receive prompt treatment.

Doctors removed the tumor but doubted Patrick would live. He spent six months in the hospital, his parents and extended family always at his side. The prayers were never-ending.

But the battle over what was best for Patrick Foster was just beginning.

Prosecution or persecution?

The Faith Tabernacle Congregation church in north Philadelphia is a handsome, turn-of-the-century brick building with a granite facade in a rough, graffiti-covered neighborhood. It hearkens back to the early part of the century when the city's working class lived in row after row of brownstones and worshipped in the neighborhood churches that dot many of the blocks.

Pastor Kenneth Yeager, a powerfully built man with a firm handshake, says he's never so much as taken an aspirin because his true faith in God has always helped him deal with pain and sickness.

On a Wednesday night, nearly 200 parishioners -- women and girls in their best dresses and men in dark suits -- make their way into the church. With a soothing voice, Yeager reads anonymous prayers from parishioners praying for healings and other personal needs.

"Brother gives a note of praise for a few days of vacation....

"Sister gives a note of praise for deliverance of swelling in her feet....

"Sister asks prayers for suitable employment...."

He also offers a general prayer that the authorities will stop prosecuting and "persecuting" members of the church who refuse medical attention for their sick children. He prays that the parish can "continue to lead a quiet and peaceable life."

The following Sunday, Yeager's sermon is like a road map to the religious doctrine of faith healing. "We know it's God's work to trust him with the healing of our body," Yeager said. "Man didn't make these bodies, God did. Sometimes we hinder God's ability to help us by using human efforts.

"By putting all your faith in God, every bit, you will be saved from the power and hold of Satan and be delivered to an eternal life."

Even after losing five children, Faith Tabernacle members Dawn and Roger Winterborne continue to believe that message of healing through faith. The children, all younger than 2, died between 1971 and 1980 of cystic fibrosis, which can be treated to prolong life, often for years. Their sixth child, a 4-day-old girl, died in 1982 of pneumonia.

The couple never was prosecuted for treating their children with prayers.

"We still practice the same thing," Dawn Winterborne said. "We still believe the same way.

"They were sick," she said of her children. "There was no medical cure for them. God could have cured them, but that's neither here nor there."

The "miracle baby"

The April edition of the medical journal Pediatrics includes a study that documents 172 faith-related child deaths in the United States between 1975 and 1995. The authors say that 140 of the children died from conditions for which survival rates with medical care exceeded 90 percent. The deaths are attributed to 23 religious denominations in 34 states. Twenty of the deaths were in the Faith Tabernacle congregation.

Until 1985 Pennsylvania rarely prosecuted faith healers. That year the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a faith-healing couple whose son died of untreated cancer. Since then, prosecutors have routinely investigated complaints of abuse or deaths of Faith Tabernacle children and taken their parents to court, if necessary, to protect lives.

Now under court order, Patrick Foster has lived for the past year with his aunt and uncle, Diane and Tim Foster. The judge allows Patrick to spend four hours a day with his parents and two siblings. One day each week, Patrick is allowed to visit his parents for eight hours. He says he loves his parents and knows they love him.

Dan and Anne Foster are not bad people, says Dan's brother, Tim. "They're honest and loving. They believed they were doing what was best for Patrick."

But a jury convicted them of conspiracy and child neglect, both felonies. In September, a judge sentenced them to 14 years' probation and ordered regular medical treatments for their son.

The judge also ordered them to purchase health insurance for their three children, to buy a thermometer and to take classes at a local hospital on how to recognize childhood illnesses. And he warned them that if they ignore his orders, he will send them to jail.

"The criminal law is the way we draw lines for what is acceptable in our society," said lead prosecutor Mimi Rose. "We also want the non-faith-healing community to know that this is not OK."

That message is working, Rose said, citing two other anonymous phone calls that resulted in criminal cases against faith-healing parents.

The Fosters' attorney, Arthur Jarrett, said loving parents shouldn't be prosecuted for doing what they think is best for their children.

"It's not neglect if you actually believe it and you do what your religion says to do to get healed and you do it fervently," Jarrett said. "You can't prosecute religion away. It does not alter the religious practice. Outside of venting a public desire, it furthers no interest."

But to Mimi Rose, the prosecution is furthering the interest of Patrick, the one person in the case who cannot look out for himself.

Patrick's cancer recurred this summer, and his future is uncertain. He faces chemotherapy, radiation treatments and maybe a bone marrow transplant.

Still, he tires out any adult trying to keep up with him. "We call him the miracle baby," said his aunt, Diane.

Patrick's aunt and uncle are not convinced he will be safe if he goes home. During his criminal trial, Dan Foster testified he was against the medical treatment that saved his son because it was "not God's plan." He said he would rely again on prayers if presented with similar circumstances.

Diane and Tim Foster say they will share their fears with the family court judge next month and hope they will be granted continued supervision.

"I'm not saying he shouldn't see his parents," Diane Foster said as her nephew scooted his tricycle across the back patio. "But he should be safe first. This is not religious freedom. Believe what you want. But Patrick doesn't know God. He's 3 years old."

Deaths in Indiana

On most days, Elizabeth Leach makes the short journey past the lakes, cornfields and old houses along East Backwater Road to the country cemetery in North Webster, Ind., where she buried her daughter and grandchild. Her pilgrimage goes unnoticed by most in the comfortably quaint town west of Fort Wayne, where cardboard signs advertise nightcrawlers and a big attraction is fishing at dozens of well-stocked lakes.

Most people have long forgotten the heyday of the Faith Assembly Church in nearby Wilmot, a now-defunct congregation of about 2,000. But Leach will never forget how her 24-year-old daughter, Alice, bled to death during childbirth on July 2, 1976.

Alice Leach wasn't the first to die for believing in the doctrines taught by the Faith Assembly. Nor the last. More than 90 deaths in eight states -- a majority of which were children or mothers in childbirth -- were blamed on the faith-healing practices in that one church, according to child advocates and news reports.

Indiana includes some of the same immunities as Oregon law for faith-healing parents. But unlike Oregon, it does not include a religious shield for homicide. Indiana prosecutors eventually brought charges against one couple and the church's leader. Efforts to prosecute those two highly publicized cases, coupled with the leader's sudden death, discouraged faith-healing in Indiana. But Indiana legislators have chosen not to eliminate the religious immunities that make it difficult to prosecute faith-healing parents.

That angers Elizabeth Leach, because the same thing could happen today. She thinks back on warning signs she never acted on and wonders aloud what it would be like to have grandchildren.

Twenty-eight years later, Alice Leach comes alive in the fuzzy black and white photograph in her senior-class yearbook. She's smiling and wears a cross on a thin chain around her neck. Alice was in the pep club and participated in drama, art and music programs.

Shortly after graduating, Alice joined Faith Assembly, fell in love with another member, got married and became pregnant. She never had prenatal care and decided to have the baby at home without a doctor. During the birth Alice started hemorrhaging.

Members of Faith Assembly surrounded Alice as her life slipped away over two days. The women attending the birth prayed instead of calling for an ambulance -- even after Alice died. One, a registered nurse, later lost her state license over the incident.

"Those people thought they could pray her back to life," Leach said.

Public outcry

Faith Assembly's quick rise to popularity in the late 1970s is attributed to its charismatic leader, Hobart E. Freeman.

Freeman formed his evangelical ministry after being dismissed from Grace Seminary College in 1963 for his extreme beliefs.

The Faith Assembly attracted hundreds of young families, college kids and teen-agers. Today, all that is left of Faith Assembly's first official meeting place -- known in its day as the Glory Barn -- is a stone fireplace and chimney rising out of a grass field. People lined up for hours to ensure a seat to hear Freeman preach Scripture.

The Glory Barn burned after publicity about the church and the faith-healing deaths started hitting local newspapers. Rumor was that it was arson, a fire started by opponents of the church.

"They used to joke that I burned it down," said Barbara Clouse, 68, a now-retired public health nurse and lifetime Kosciusko County resident who first brought the faith-healing deaths to light. Clouse and local law enforcement officials often sought court orders to treat ill or injured Faith
Assembly children.

Faith Assembly members were told to keep secret any illness. Clouse said one couple, out of a fear of the government instilled by Freeman, kept their dead child in the trunk of their car for days before turning the body over to the local coroner.

The most disturbing case to local authorities was the March 1980 death of 4-year-old Natali Joy Mudd. She died from a tumor in her eye which eventually grew to the size of her head.

Responding to a phone call from her parents, police found blood trails along the walls of the house where the girl, nearly blind from the tumor, had dragged her head as she tried to navigate from room to room.

"It's hard to comprehend a little toddler going through all that because of religion, with all the treatments available," said Sgt. Gerald D. Oswalt, one of the police officers who investigated.

Ron and Martha Mudd never called a doctor for their daughter. The prosecuting attorney at the time, Michael Miner, never filed criminal charges because Indiana law exempts those who provide treatment by spiritual means in lieu of medical care.

Two and a half years later, the Mudds' other daughter, Leah, 5, died after a court-ordered operation to remove a basketball-sized stomach tumor.

Miner was prosecutor from 1979 to 1990. Faith Assembly fell into his lap shortly after he came to public office. Now a private attorney, Miner admits he was sometimes "ambivalent" about the faith-healing church. Not only was he concerned that he would be criticized for spending too much money on trials and police work, but he also thought any guilty verdicts probably would have been overturned because of the religious exemption in Indiana law.

Michigan prosecutes

Miner eventually charged Freeman with conspiracy, but only after public pressure mounted and prosecutors in other counties and states sought indictments against Faith Assembly parents. There were hundreds of small Faith Assembly groups in the states surrounding Indiana listening to Freeman's sermons on cassette tapes.

One of the first to take on the church was Michael Hocking, a deputy prosecutor in Lansing, Mich., about a two-hour drive north of Fort Wayne. He charged church members Kenneth and Bonnie Sealy with involuntary manslaughter for the March 11, 1982, death of their infant daughter.

Carie Sealy was born at home in the couple's apartment and lived for 12 days before dying of pneumonia. Kenneth Sealy told police he gave his daughter mouth to mouth resuscitation at least a dozen times when her breathing faltered. The baby was jaundiced and was having seizures, but the Sealys never called for help or sought a doctor.

"When she did one of these seizures, I definitely sought the Lord as to why she was sick," Kenneth Sealy said during a police interrogation. "If my God can't help her, no man can."

Another of the Sealy's children, 15-month-old Joshua, died nine days after his baby sister following a court-ordered surgery to remove a large tumor in his abdomen. The parents were not charged in that case.

Ken Sealy was convicted in 1983 and sentenced to a year in a work-release program for his daughter's death. The case against his wife was dismissed. Two years later, the Michigan Supreme Court denied his appeal.

Hocking, now 47 and a private attorney after several years as a circuit judge, sees no debate when it comes to faith healing. As he reviews the yellowing files regarding Carie Sealy's case, he shakes his head in disgust.

"Right now Carie would be a 16-year-old girl," Hocking said. "She'd have a driver's license."

It was two years after Hocking prosecuted the Sealys in Michigan that Miner sought a grand jury indictment in Indiana charging Freeman with conspiracy on the premise that he was aiding and encouraging parents to deny their children medical care. The six-member grand jury also returned indictments of reckless homicide against a couple whose daughter died of kidney failure.

But in 1984, before the case could be brought to trial, Freeman died in his Shoe Lake home of congestive heart failure and bronchial pneumonia. Without him, Faith Assembly slowly disintegrated.

South Dakota breaks ground

Joni Clark's office in downtown Sioux Falls, S.D., is adorned with Georgia O'Keefe prints, legal degrees and a plaque from the American Academy of Pediatrics. She was given the award for helping South Dakota in 1990 to become the first state to eliminate religious immunity laws.

It's a weighty accomplishment for a woman who married into a faith-healing church just after graduating from high school. She lost her first daughter just days after she was born because her church and husband wouldn't allow a doctor to be called, and she nearly died herself from the trauma of labor.

Clark went on to have four other girls with Gary Cooke before divorcing him in 1987 as their church, End Time Ministries, was moving its headquarters from the Midwest to Florida.

From the beginning of her first pregnancy, Clark was sick and weak. Her joints swelled, she had migraine headaches and it hurt just to breathe. She was lying in bed one afternoon when her husband yelled at her to get up. Lying down was admitting defeat, he told her.

"I was in so much pain," she said. "I was just praying. I couldn't do this another day."

She delivered her daughter alone in bed, a month before she was due. The child was born breech and weighed 3 pounds, 12 ounces.

Little Libby struggled for life over the next two days. She stopped breathing several times. Clark said End Time's pastor and founder, Charles Meade, told her that babies are little and sometimes forget to breathe.

"That night, Libby quit breathing again and turned blue," Clark said. "We needed help, but I could hardly get out of bed."

Her mother-in-law suggested medical help. Clark agreed but was overruled. "They told me if you think like that, that's what could kill her," she said.

Meade continued giving Clark pep talks while the new mother prayed over her child. Clark doesn't remember much of the next day. Two other couples helped as she tried to get some rest. They prayed, she recalled. Clark was drifting off to sleep when she heard someone in the next room scream.

"They were holding her in different positions trying to get her to breathe," she said, tears running down her cheeks at the memory. The baby vomited blood. "I tried to get her to breathe, and her head went limp. I knew she was gone."

An autopsy determined the cause of death was pneumonia brought on by the premature birth. Doctors later told Clark that Libby would have had a 99 percent chance of survival had she been born in a hospital.

"After my daughter died, the anger that I had, I never got over it," Clark said.

A personal war

Clark began a secret, personal war against the church, all while having four other healthy girls without the help of modern medicine. She told other women about birth control and childhood diseases and helped them get proper treatment if their babies became ill.

"I could never get past the fact that women and children were paying the price in this group," she said.

By the fall of 1986 she decided to leave the church, divorce her husband, and go to law school.

"For 10 years I did everything they told me to do," Clark said. "I lost the ability to think critically for myself. I had no idea that something that looks so much like a church could be so cult-like."

In 1989 she began lobbying to get South Dakota to change its laws granting religious defenses for the crimes of child abuse, neglect and non-support. The law also allowed parents with religious objections the right to decline immunizations and metabolic screening for newborns.

Clark told her story to community service groups, legislators and anyone else who would listen. By 1990, the State Affairs Committee forwarded a bill to eliminate these religious privileges. The Christian Science Church and its lobbyists were the only opposition. Later that year, after Clark testified in the Legislature, South Dakota became the first state in the nation to repeal its religious immunities, making it a crime to deny medical care to children.

The effect of the change has been hard to measure. Meade and most of his followers left the Midwest before South Dakota's law was enacted. Dave Nelson, state's attorney for Minnehaha County in Sioux Falls, one of the state's largest counties, said there have been no reports of faith-healing child deaths, and no faith-healing parents have been investigated or charged with
crimes since he took office in 1988.

For her efforts, Clark got a letter from the governor, thanking her for her courage. She earned her law degree in 1992 and practices criminal and family law in Sioux Falls, where she lives with her four teen-age daughters.

Oregon's dilemma

When 11-year-old Bo Phillips died in his parents' bed Feb. 23 after days of painful symptoms caused by diabetes, there were nearly 100 members of the Followers of Christ Church at the Oregon City home praying he would be healed.

The boy is one of more than 70 children in the faith-healing church who have died since 1955 and one of at least 21 who doctors say could have been cured with basic medical care. Little is known about how most of the children died -- including 15 infants listed as stillborn -- because death investigations before 1985 were either inconclusive or nonexistent. In addition, three mothers have died in childbirth in the past 10 years.

Police saw Bo Phillips' death as a clear case of abuse because the state medical examiner ruled that the disease was easily treatable. "If you or I did this to our child, we would be prosecuted," said Jeff Green, a Clackamas County sheriff's detective.

From The Oregonian of Monday, Nov. 30, 1998 -- One denomination lobbies tirelessly (2nd of 3 parts): Intensive efforts by the Christian Science Church sway the debate over laws to protect faith-healing parents
By Mark Larabee

As Ohio lawmakers debated bills to repeal religious shield laws in 1989, legislators received as many as 500 letters each from Christian Scientists. The church retained a former governor's aide to lobby against the bills, and local church members packed committee meetings.

The Christian Science Church had used the same well-organized lobbying effort on the Indiana Legislature in the early 1980s, as lawmakers pushed to eliminate laws protecting faith healers in the wake of more than 50 child deaths. Four times a bill requiring parents to provide medical care for their children passed the House, but each time it died in a Senate committee after Christian Scientists flooded senators with mail and jammed hearings.

"It was impossible to get it by the Christian Science Church," said Rep. Robert Alderman, R-Fort Wayne. "I would get it through the House, and the Christian Science Church would get it killed in the Senate."

The Christian Science Church is the nation's largest religious organization favoring spiritual healing over medical care. It has been effective in promoting the protection of faith healing in both state and federal laws. As a result, the church has kept religious immunity alive for other, less politically active faith-healing churches, including those in Oregon.

In 1995, when Oregon legislators were considering changing the state's murder by abuse law to strengthen penalties for child killers, Christian Scientists asked for exemptions for faith healers.

But in Salem, there was no letter-writing campaign, no effort to fill hearing rooms. There was no need. Not knowing that 70 children in the Followers of Christ Church had died since 1955, lawmakers quickly agreed to increase legal protections for believers of faith healing.

And they were careful to make sure the Christian Scientists approved of the new law.

"Our negotiation with them was to come up with language that left these folks alone," recalled Polk County District Attorney Fred Avera, who helped draft the 1995 law changes.

Oregon has a long history of leaving faith healers alone. Although some prosecutors and lawmakers occasionally looked into reports of child deaths in the Followers of Christ Church, the congregation went largely unnoticed as it grew and amassed one of the largest concentrations of child deaths ever documented in the United States.

Christian Scientists are considered more mainstream than many of the smaller faith-healing churches. They have a largely upper-middle class membership of 200,000 that stretches across the nation.

Unlike some of the smaller faith-healing churches, the mortality rate among Christian Science pregnant women and children is comparable to the rest of the nation, in part because doctors are often consulted during pregnancy and childbirth. A national study published in the April edition of the medical journal Pediatrics said Christian Science parents had 25 preventable child
deaths between 1975 and 1995, far fewer than some other faith-healing religions.

Still, in many cases, Christian Science children have died of routine maladies after being treated with prayer instead of medical care. That is not lost on critics, who argue that the church's mainstream status should not offer legitimacy to religious shield laws in the United States, laws which protect faith-healing parents if their children die from a lack of medical care.

But Gary Jones, manager of the Committee on Publication, the Christian Scientists' public relations and publishing arm, says such laws aren't just to protect faith healing but to protect everyone's constitutional right to religious freedom.

"I don't think we're talking about religious immunity, we're talking about accommodation," Jones said. "The reason for the accommodation is that there's a public demand for it."

Church officials say their lobbying is largely a grass-roots effort by church members. While the committee on publications has a four-person office in Washington, D.C., to monitor federal legislative activity, committee members in each state work independently with legislators if mecessary.

Ethel Baker of the committee's headquarters in Boston insists the church doesn't have the political muscle to push through major legislation. But it accomplishes a lot, she said, because lawmakers recognize the need to accommodate differing religious viewpoints.

"Whatever clout we do have has been earned," Baker said. "It's not coming from money. It's coming from conviction and hard work and a strong belief in what this church is about."

Influence in Oregon

The 1995 change to Oregon's murder by abuse law did two things. It created stiffer penalties for parents who neglect their children, and it introduced a new clause to Oregon's homicide statutes: a defense based on religion.

When a child dies of neglect or maltreatment in Oregon, it is a recognized defense if a parent substituted medical care with prayer in accordance with religious beliefs. A faith-healing defendant can raise a religious defense just like others would claim self-defense or extreme emotional disturbance.

Christian Science lobbyists played a behind-the-scenes role in getting the religious defense into the 1995 Oregon law, according to legislative records and lawmakers and prosecutors involved.

The religious issue raised few concerns among lawmakers at the time. In a May 1995 House Judiciary Committee meeting, two Christian Science lobbyists attended and were briefly asked if they had any objections about how the law was being drafted. They said they did not, and committee members quickly moved on to another subject.

Avera, the Polk County district attorney, said he had a number of meetings with Christian Science lawyers and church members before and during the legislative hearings, oftentimes in the hallways of the Capitol.

"They came forward expressing concerns, but it wasn't like they were threatening to bottle up the bill or anything," he said.

Avera said he wasn't concerned because the proposed law put the burden on defendants to prove their actions were a direct result of their religious beliefs.

When Oregon legislators in 1997 strengthened penalties in the murder by abuse law, Christian Scientists again contacted lawmakers. Although the stronger penalties were adopted, religious shields were added to the state's first- and second-degree manslaughter statutes, giving faith healers a legal defense to those crimes.

The 1997 legislative record makes few references to the church. Those who drafted the law say they were contacted by church lobbyists before the committee hearings and agreed to the religious exemptions.

Federal influence

Forty-three states, including Oregon, grant broad immunities to faith-healing parents from prosecution for crimes such as neglect and child abuse. Oregon is among only six states that go further and grant immunity for manslaughter, homicide or murder by abuse.

Before 1974 only a few states included the shields in their statutes. But that year, in response to Christian Science lobbying, the federal government required states to include religious immunity in their civil and criminal codes if they wanted to continue receiving federal money for child abuse prevention programs. Most states complied.

It wasn't until 1982 that prosecutors began challenging the laws. A year later, the federal government rescinded the requirement, leaving it up to states to decide. Most states have left the laws in place, said Rita Swan, founder and president of Child Inc., a national lobbying group working to eliminate religious shield laws.

Massachusetts, Maryland, South Dakota and Hawaii have rescinded the religious exemptions from their requirements that parents provide medical care for sick children. In most other states, the influence of the 1974 federal law remains.

Swan's group also is appealing federal court decisions in the Midwest that allow Christian Science nursing homes to collect $8 million a year in Medicare and Medicad payments. The group claims the payment of tax money to a religious organization is unconstitutional.

But a federal district court this summer said Christian Scientists and other faith healers are entitled to the same basic nursing care received in conventional hospitals while practicing the tenants of their religion. Such laws are heralded by the church to show the legitimacy of sole reliance on faith healing. Swan argues the laws come at the expense of children's lives.

Church officials say that even though they don't use doctors as primary healers, their members should benefit equally from the federal programs.

"The religious beliefs of certain patients should not preclude them from realizing Medicare and Medicaid benefits for which you and I are paying for most of our lives," Gary Jones said.

The Mother Church

The soaring dome of the Mother Church of the Christian Scientists is at the center of a complex of church-owned buildings at the confluence of Huntington and Massachusetts avenues, five blocks south of the Charles River in downtown Boston.

The granite "old" church -- built in 1894 -- and the larger limestone "new" church -- built 10 years later -- are monuments to spiritual healing and the power of the mind. The smaller building is dedicated to Mary Baker Eddy, the 19th century prophet and founder of Christian Science.

Her ideals are the cornerstones of the church's beliefs system, which has spread to an estimated 200,000 followers. Through churches, private schools, reading rooms and radio broadcasts, the messages of a divine life through Christ are spread.

The church administration has almost 800 paid staffers, from public relations experts and attorneys to bookkeepers, working not only in the Boston headquarters but in every state and more than 70 nations worldwide.

The heavy bells of the Mother Church ring out over a stone courtyard and a long reflecting pool, a call that regular Wednesday night testimony meeting held in churches throughout the world is beginning.

In an hourlong service, a "reader" chooses passages from the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. The congregants sing hymns from the Christian Science hymnal. Churchgoers tell stories of their healings, testimonies of the power of their religion.

One woman tells how, after reading the weekly lesson on life, she was cured of a sore tongue that had plagued her for days. She was overwhelmed by a sense of gratitude after studying the lesson. The next day her pain was gone.

"I was thrilled with the encouragement of this healing and the lessons that were learned from it," she said. "I'm so grateful for what Christian Science has offered me."

Christian Scientists believe that sickness is a result of fear and that the symptoms of an illness have no ultimate reality and can be overcome by the spiritual powers of a person's mind. The way to heal or prevent disease is to draw closer to God.

Church literature is filled with testimonies of healings: People are cured of leukemia and other cancers through the powers of their prayers. Others, diagnosed by doctors as uncurable, are healed through divine spirit. For that reason, the church continues to push for equity with regard to its method of healing.

"It would be unfair to have the public stop its inquiry because of some failures in the methods of treatment," Jones said. "Medicine has failures too."

Church literature states that if members choose to see a doctor over sole reliance on spiritual healing, church practitioners will not get involved in the treatment of a patient. The two forms of healing don't combine, Jones said.

Practitioners are studied healers recognized by the church to give prayer treatments to church members. They help members work through physical ailments and pray that illnesses will go away, charging a fee for their work.

Church members also can employ Christian Science nurses, who help patients by giving food and comfort, not medical treatment. They are not licensed by the state.

Christian Scientists are taught that disease in young children is caused by the fears, ignorance and sins of the parents. Disease is an illusion, and recognition of it gives it reality, according to church literature. So when a child becomes ill, a practitioner prays not only for the child's well-being but for the thoughts of the parents.

By doing that, critics say, the church is pushing parents into withholding basic, necessary medical care from children. They argue the church's strict doctrines and rules offer little wiggle room for parents who want to be good Christian Scientists.

The criticisms are familiar to church officials. Jones said the No. 1 message the church directors want members to know is that they have free choice. There are no absolutes, and individual decisions are respected and supported. He said parents must always make the choice that they feel is best for their children.

Changing Massachusetts law

Two-year-old Robyn Twitchell was born into a Christian Science home in Boston. His parents, Ginger and David Twitchell, didn't believe in doctors. When their son became ill, they called a church practitioner.

Robyn had been in extreme pain for nearly a week by the time he died April 8, 1986, of a bowel obstruction and peritonitis.

News reports that no doctors were called for Robyn outraged the public and child advocates. The subsequent criminal trial of his parents would launch a legal debate over religious freedoms and children's rights that would find its way to the statehouse and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

It took two years and a medical examiner's inquest to bring the case to trial. When an inquest judge ordered the Twitchells to stand trial he also called for legislative reform.

On the eve of jury selection, the Christian Science Church took out full-page ads in the Boston Globe and other East Coast newspapers complaining of religious persecution.

In a pretrial motion to dismiss the indictment, the Twitchells argued that the state's 1971 religious exemption law provided a shield from prosecution. But the judge ruled they could be tried because the law referred to child neglect, not manslaughter.

During a key point in the three-month trial, a Christian Science nurse testified that Robyn was alert, responsive and even playful just hours before he died. But the nurse's notes, subpoenaed by prosecutor John Kiernan, described the child moaning in pain. Neighbors testified that they closed their windows to avoid hearing the boy's screams, Kiernan said.

David Twitchell testified that he had taken Novocaine during a root canal procedure in California. "Yet he deprived his kid of even a medical diagnosis," Kiernan said. "That's the level of hypocrisy we're dealing with."

On July 4, 1990, a jury found the Twitchells guilty of involuntary manslaughter for recklessly endangering Robyn's life and failing to fulfill their parental duty to provide him with medical care. They were sentenced to 10 years' probation.

The Twitchell's appealed. In 1993, the state's Supreme Judicial Court overturned the conviction on a technicality. The Superior Court judge had not let the jury see a book called "Legal Rights and Obligations of Christian Scientists in Massachusetts," which the Twitchells relied on in caring for their son. The book included the state law that provides a religious defense to criminal non-support.

But the supreme court also stated that parents have a legal duty to provide medical care for their sick or injured children.

Armed with the opinion, a coalition of child advocates, nurses, doctors and lawyers began a push to have the Legislature remove the religious privileges from the state laws.

"No one had dared pull this exemption out of the law because of Christian Science pressure," said Jetta Bernier, executive director of the Massachusetts Committee for Children and Youth, an independent, nonprofit group. "We were up against the Mother Church, with all the resources that they had."

With the help of several legislators, a bill was drafted and made its way through the Statehouse. The church fought it at every step and helped sympathetic lawmakers draft language shielding its members.

It was a battle on two fronts. The church's lobbyists and attorneys worked the halls and offices of the Capitol while church members telephoned and wrote letters to their individual representatives, said Ed Brennan, a lobbyist for the Massachusetts chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who was pushing the child neglect bill.

As it did in Indiana, the church also tried to build solidarity with other churches, Brennan said.

In the end, the church's amendment was voted down and the religious exemptions stricken from Massachusetts law. In 1995, almost a decade after Robyn Twitchell's death, the home state of the world's largest and most respected faith-healing church made it mandatory for parents to obtain medical care for their sick or injured children.

Since that time, no religion-based deaths have been reported in Massachusetts, Bernier said.

And as it does in every state, the church tells its member to obey the laws to the letter.

From The Oregonian of Tuesday, Dec. 1, 1998 -- An Oregon case shines a light on the issue (Part 3 of 3): A boy's death focuses attention on faith healing, but there's little consensus on what Oregon's laws mean -- and less agreement on what to do next
By Mark Larabee

When an 11-year-old Oregon City boy died of painful complications of untreated diabetes in February, the state's legal system jumped into motion.

The Oregon state medical examiner said the death -- the third faith-healing child death in 12 months within the Followers of Christ Church in Oregon City -- could have been prevented with routine medical care. Police recommended charges be filed against the parents.

Unlike the more than 70 child deaths in the church reaching back to the 1950s -- none of them prosecuted -- this one wasn't going away quietly.

Clackamas County District Attorney Terry Gustafson decided not to take the case to a grand jury. Instead, she called a news conference to announce that in her opinion, Oregon's homicide laws are so confusing that they violate parents' rights to due process granted by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Gustafson then said she would spearhead an effort to change Oregon law to make it easier to prosecute faith-healing parents.

Eight months later, Gustafson's ability to have any effect on the debate is questionable. She is under indictment on criminal charges of perjury, and recently her law license was suspended for six months. Yet she is adamant that she will lobby the 1999 Legislature to get the laws changed.

"Children are dying in Clackamas County," she said last week. "I have a duty and responsibility because of what I know. If I have to go to the Legislature, with or without legal entanglements, I will do it."

Child advocates and investigators who review child deaths in Oregon have followed her call for a review of the laws. But whether any changes will be made is up to legislators, and no legislator has stepped forward to coordinate efforts to evaluate whether the laws should be changed.

Lawmakers could decide to eliminate the laws that shield faith-healing parents from criminal prosecution. They could rewrite the laws to reduce confusion among district attorneys. Or they could do nothing.

A local representative of the nation's largest child-advocacy group against faith healing has begun organizing efforts to repeal all of Oregon's laws protecting faith healers. The Oregon District Attorney's Association said it supports "the idea of a bill to clarify the law."

Even prosecutors who disagree with Gustafson's legal interpretation, including Attorney General Hardy Myers and Marion County District Attorney Dale Penn, say that if Gustafson is unsure of the law's strength, there needs to be revision.

"I'm not confused. I think the law is sufficient to deal with this," said Penn, legislative chairman of the district attorney's association. But for the law to work, there should be no confusion among prosecutors, he said.

The district attorney's association will not take the lead in drafting a bill but instead will focus on revamping Measure 40, the 1996 tough-on-crime initiative, which was ruled unconstitutional this year.

The debate

Child deaths among faith-healing Christians are nothing new in the United States or Oregon. With its 1,200 members, the Followers of Christ Church in Oregon City has witnessed one of the largest concentrations of faith-healing child deaths documented in the United States.

Similar churches have prospered throughout the nation. Like the Followers of Christ, some have been allowed to heal by faith in relative obscurity, without the fear and pressure of government prosecution if one of their children dies. Others have come under scrutiny from local prosecutors backed by state laws that require parents to seek medical care for their sick or injured children regardless of their religious beliefs.

When an Oregon parent mistreats or neglects a child by failing to provide adequate food, shelter or medical care and the child dies, state law calls it murder by abuse -- unless the parent proves a belief in faith healing.

As long as the parents can convince a judge or jury that they were treating their sick or injured child with prayers in accordance with their religious beliefs, they cannot be convicted of the crime. Similar religious shields exist for the crimes of first- and second-degree manslaughter.

However, the crime of negligent homicide does not include the religious exemption.

Although Myers, Oregon's attorney general, supports efforts to clarify Oregon's laws, he firmly believes the negligent homicide law assigns the proper degree of accountability to the crime and establishes a punishment warranted by the offense.

"We're giving value to the child's life, but we're looking at what's occurred and who's responsible for it," Myers said.

Myers said that's the charge Gustafson could have filed against the Oregon City parents if she thought the facts of the case warranted it.

Gustafson disagrees, calling the negligent homicide statute vague and confusing because its wording is nearly identical to the manslaughter statute, which includes a religious defense. It's like calling the same crime two different things, she said.

"They've given me no legal authority whatsoever that would make me change my mind," Gustafson said.

Gustafson cites cases in two other states to support her view.

In Minnesota, the state Supreme Court upheld the dismissal of manslaughter charges against Christian Science parents after their 11-year-old son died of complications of diabetes. The court ruled that because state statutes on child neglect allow a religious defense, such criminal charges would violate the parents' constitutional right to due process -- even though they were charged under another section of the law. A Florida court has made a similar ruling.

But this summer, the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of Brownsville roofer Loyd Hayes, a Church of the First Born member who was convicted of criminally negligent homicide in the death of his 8-year-old son in 1994. Hayes failed to provide medical treatment for Anthony, who died of leukemia. Hayes appealed his conviction.

Although the death occurred before religious shield laws were added to Oregon's homicide statutes, the state appellate court judges specifically noted their disagreement with the rulings in the Minnesota and Florida cases. The judges ruled that the state has a compelling interest in protecting a child's life and that "imposing criminal sanctions on a person who is responsible for one child's death will further that interest ..."

Gustafson said the appeals court was "presumptuous" in disagreeing with supreme courts in two states. She cites a case in the federal 9th Circuit Court that also supports her legal opinion, and said that the federal court carries more weight than the state courts in deciding constitutional issues such as due process.

Reform efforts

Boulden Griffith, a former Christian Scientist, is leading one effort to get Oregon law changed. The Hillsboro resident is the Oregon contact for Children's Healthcare is a Legal Duty, an Iowa-based child-advocacy group fighting for the elimination of religious shield laws in the United States.

Griffith and other critics of the laws say the exemptions encourage members of faith-healing churches to act on their beliefs to withhold medical care.

"This is a barbaric exception to the general policy of this state and others to protect minors and other dependent individuals from the extreme and misguided ideas of their parents or guardians," Griffith wrote in a letter to Gov. John Kitzhaber. "Religious beliefs are not permitted to excuse actions such as sexual abuse, physical abuse or the withholding of nutritional necessities, yet we make an exception for medical treatment no matter how cruel or unnecessary the results in view of current medical options."

Griffith also wrote to more than a dozen groups and politicians asking for support. A core group of organizers has met to discuss strategy, but a legislative sponsor for the bill has yet to sign on, he said.

It's unclear to some what a new law could accomplish.

Before religious shield laws were strengthened in 1995, deaths of Followers of Christ children in Oregon City periodically set off alarms among local officials. But no parents were prosecuted.

Clackamas County prosecutors considered filing charges in three cases in 1990, according to documents obtained by The Oregonian. But they never went ahead with it.

In 1965, Rep. Richard Groener, D-Milwaukie, sponsored legislation allowing authorities to seek court-ordered medical treatment for children after two Followers children died of meningitis within one month. Groener, now deceased, told the House Judiciary Committee that Followers children were going to school with home-set broken bones and that one family had prematurely removed a child from a hospital after a serious car accident.

This year, Gustafson urged local police and social workers to intervene in known cases where Followers children were ill. She also asked residents to notify authorities if they suspected anyone of denying a child necessary medical attention.

Penn, the Marion County district attorney, said the fact that no Followers have ever been prosecuted says volumes.

It's hard to persuade a jury to send a loving parent to jail, he said.

"You bring in these parents, sobbing and upset that their child died, and they say that this is what God told them to do," Penn said. "If they truly believe that and a jury believes they are sincere, you are not going to convict them of any crime."

Penn predicts the Followers will go on as they always have.

"We can set the standards, but I don't know that it's going to solve the issue," he said. "That's the harsh reality."

"Like lambs to the slaughter"

Elaine Poppert of Aloha knows the allegiance and devotion that develop among members of faith-healing churches. For seven years, Poppert was an active member of the Followers of Christ.

She said the Followers community welcomed her and her husband into the church in 1964, when they were poor and had nothing. After they were baptized, the church members set them up with household gifts, including a washer and dryer, and immediately included them in social gatherings.

But as the years passed, she began to feel oppressed by her husband, who wanted to follow the strict, patriarchal ways of the Followers. Then she stepped on a toothpick and contracted blood poisoning from the infection. When she decided to see a doctor, church members, including her husband, spurned her.

In 1971, the couple divorced, and Poppert moved to California with her three children. But her son and one of her two daughters returned to their father and the church. Poppert has met only two of the six grandchildren she has in the church. She hasn't seen her son and daughter for seven years.

"All I have is photos on the wall," she said, dabbing tears from her eyes.

Poppert worries constantly about the safety of her grandchildren. She wonders why the government hasn't stepped in and done something to ensure that Followers children are being cared for properly.

"Unless they prosecute and make believers out of them that they're not going to get away with this, it's not going to stop," she said.

Tommy Nichols of Oregon City, an outspoken Followers of Christ church member who has tried to move the congregation away from strict faith-healing doctrines, said the church members will not change unless they are forced to by law. But members won't try to influence any legislative proceedings.

"They won't speak out," said Nichols, one of several Followers who say many church members secretly see doctors. "They'll go like lambs to the slaughter. That's their way."

Whatever the authorities do, he said, the Followers of Christ members will take it as a sign from God, much like they do the death of one of their own children.

"God's will be done," he said. "God's will be done."

From The Oregonian of Friday, Jan. 22, 1999 -- Bill aims to lift all Oregon religious shields: The new law would, among other things, hold parents criminally liable for relying solely on prayer for healing children
By Mark Larabee

When Oregon parents treat their sick children with prayers instead of medical care under the tenets of their religion and the child is injured or dies, state law allows them to declare their religious beliefs as a legal defense to charges of homicide and child abuse.

But House Bill 2494, introduced Thursday by Rep. Bruce Starr, R-Aloha, would remove those religious shields from Oregon's criminal codes.

If approved, the new law would, among other things, hold parents criminally liable for the deaths of their children if they relied solely on prayer for healing.

"This levels the playing field for all children in Oregon," Starr said. "Regardless of their religion, parents must provide adequate medical care for their children."

The bill is the result of a debate that began last year after Clackamas County District Attorney Terry Gustafson refused to prosecute the parents of an 11-year-old Oregon City boy who died of treatable diabetes.

The dead boy's parents are member of the Followers of Christ Church, an Oregon City faith-healing sect whose 1,200 members believe that death, just as life, is God's will. Like thousands of faith-healing Christians across the nation, the Followers don't use doctors. Instead, they trust that God will heal all ills.

An investigation last year by The Oregonian found that more than 70 Followers of Christ children have died since the mid-1950s, many from treatable illnesses. This is perhaps the largest cluster of faith-healing deaths ever documented, experts have said.

Gustafson said Oregon's homicide statutes were so confusing that faith-healing parents were denied due-process rights if brought to trial. Attorney General Hardy Myers and most other Oregon prosecutors disagreed with Gustafson. But many, including Myers, have said they would support legislation to clarify parents' rights and responsibilities. Peter Cogswell, Myers'
spokesman, said Thursday that Myers had not taken a position on Starr's bill.

The bill eliminates the shield laws from all Oregon's statutes, including murder by abuse, first- and second-degree manslaughter, criminal mistreatment and criminal nonsupport.

Only six states, including Oregon, allow such sweeping immunity for faith-healing parents whose children die without treatment, although more than 40 states include some kind of religious shields in their criminal, civil and juvenile codes.

Not only are Oregon's laws some of the weakest in protecting children of faith healers, but legislative records over the years show that lawmakers wrote the laws to suit the Christian Science Church.

Christian Scientists, the nation's largest religious group favoring spiritual healing methods, has been the chief defender of such religious shields nationwide. Oregon church members pushed through changes in 1995 and 1997 that strengthened parents' rights to use prayers in lieu of medical care, ironically as prosecutors were seeking stiffer sentences for child killers. The church's Oregon lobbyist, Bruce Fitzwater, said he will pay close attention to the debate, but said he couldn't comment Thursday because he hadn't yet seen the bill.

Despite the potential opposition, Starr said he believes the bill will pass this session with few problems. It has bipartisan support, and House Speaker Lynn Snodgrass, R-Boring, and Senate Minority Leader Kate Brown, D-Portland, are the chief co-sponsors. But Starr reluctantly acknowledges that the bill could get hung up in this chiefly conservative assembly in a debate over religious freedom.

"I hope that we will instead focus on children who are dying for a lack of medical care," he said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon is considering whether to take a stand on the issue, after correspondence from one of its members last year, said David Fidanque, the group's Oregon lobbyist. Historically, the ACLU has favored a state's right to intervene in known cases where children are in danger but has been against prosecuting parents after a child dies.

"We're sympathetic to the concerns of people like the Christian Scientists whose religious beliefs prohibit them from seeking medical care," he said. "Prosecuting them later is not going to change their beliefs."

Rita Swan, president of Children's Healthcare Is a Legal Duty, based in Sioux City, Iowa, said Starr's bill is the national group's top priority. A former Christian Scientist whose son died of spinal meningitis, Swan has waged a battle against religious shields both on the state and federal levels.

"Because of the large number of children who have died in Oregon, we think it's extremely important for this bill to be passed this year," Swan said.

Two of the Oregon children who died were Russ Briggs' sons. The Oregon City resident was raised in the Followers of Christ Church and practiced its faith-healing doctrines into adulthood. His first two sons died shortly after birth of what he believes were preventable medical problems. He left the church years later and is now a member of Swan's group.

After appearing in The Oregonian, in Time magazine and on ABC's "20/20," Briggs said he is happy that something is finally being done to help the Followers' children. Each day that passes is another that children are at risk, he said.

"It just needed to be done to help the children to come," he said. "You can't go backward in time. The ones that need protecting are the ones there now."

From The Oregonian of Friday, July 23, 1999 -- Praying over ailing children won't be enough under bill: The Legislature sends to the governor a measure that eliminates most legal defenses for the practice
By Ashabel S. Green

The Oregon Senate on Thursday gave final approval to a bill that eliminates most legal defenses for parents who treat sick or dying children only with prayer.

House Bill 2494 passed 24-2 and heads to the desk of Gov. John Kitzhaber, who is expected to sign it.

In a key compromise, the bill eliminates the mandatory minimum 75-month prison sentence for second-degree manslaughter in faith-healing cases. The bill largely leaves the sentence up to the judge.

"We have a constitutional right to die for our religious convictions," said Sen. Peter Courtney, D-Salem, who carried the bill on the Senate floor. "We don't have a constitutional right to make our children do so."

Thursday's action nearly marks the end of what has been a roller-coaster ride for HB2494 through the 1999 legislative session.

In January, a bipartisan group of 26 Oregon lawmakers signed onto two bills designed to protect the children of parents who practice faith healing. Many were outraged by the death of more than 70 children in the Oregon City Followers of Christ Church and the Clackamas County district attorney's claims that she could not prosecute parents because of flaws in state law.

The first signs of trouble emerged several months later over the mandatory minimum prison sentence for second-degree manslaughter. Religious conservatives were most vocal in saying the sentence was too long for otherwise law-abiding citizens.

On May 13, after a passionate debate, the House voted 40-19 to approve HB2494.

The Senate promptly made key changes, replacing the spiritual treatment defense for criminal mistreatment -- child abuse -- and giving the trial judge discretion in sentencing a faith healer convicted of second-degree manslaughter. The changes caused several problems. House supporters said the bill was too weak because it did not remove the defense for child abuse.

But prosecutors, victims rights advocates and tough-on-crime legislators also were unhappy. Manslaughter is covered by Measure 11, a voter-approved initiative that set minimum prison sentences for certain violent crimes. It takes a two-thirds' vote of the Legislature to change a Measure 11 offense.

Measure 11 supporters, including Rep. Kevin Mannix, R-Salem, opposed making what would be only the second exception to the 1994 initiative.

On July 12, HB2494 passed the Senate 24-3. The House voted to send it to a conference committee, but supporters openly fretted about finding a compromise.

Last week, a compromise emerged. Mannix agreed to the exception. The Senate agreed to eliminate the spiritual defense for criminal mistreatment.

The House voted 49-5 for the bill on Wednesday.

From The Oregonian of Tuesday, Aug. 17, 1999 -- Parents lose legal defense for using faith healing: Gov. John Kitzhaber signs a compromise bill that attempts to guarantee children the right to adequate medical care
By Laura Oppenheimer

Lawmakers celebrated the final approval Monday of a bill that dissolves parents' legal defense for treating sick children only with prayer, ending a long struggle with churches that practice faith healing.

Gov. John Kitzhaber praised the final product of a tumultuous six-month debate about faith healing, saying that it will minimize unnecessary deaths and illness. Legislators have struggled to come up with a bill that respects religious freedom while guaranteeing children adequate medical care.

"It's a very difficult and emotional issue," Kitzhaber said, signing House Bill 2494 before a group of about 20 supporters. The law takes effect immediately.

HB2494 was one of hundreds of bills sent to the governor by the 1999 Legislature. Kitzhaber has already vetoed 44 of them and is expected to issue a "hit-list" today with some 35 bills, satisfying a law that he give at least five days' notice before acting. Kitzhaber is on a veto pace that likely will set a record, beating his 1995 mark of 52.

Advocates of the faith-healing bill cheered the compromise version, which emerged last month in the final days of the 1999 Legislature. The bill eliminates the spiritual healing defense in cases of second-degree manslaughter, first- and second-degree criminal mistreatment and nonpayment of child support.

Proponents of the bill had also hoped to eliminate the faith-healing defense for murder and first-degree manslaughter cases. In another concession, advocates agreed to give judges discretion in prison sentences for second-degree manslaughter cases, exempting faith-healing defendants from the typical 75-month minimum sentence.

Refusing to negotiate would have jeopardized the legislation, said Rep. Kathy Lowe, D-Milwaukie, who wrote the bill. Now, legislators are hoping that merely passing the new law will deter parents from denying their children the medical care they need.

"I'm hopeful that cases won't come to court now," Lowe said. "This religious community, they're all good people. They're all law-abiding people and ask their children to be law-abiding people. The only problem for them was ambiguity in the law."

For some Oregon churches, though, faith healing is a big part of religion. Some denominations -- most notably the Christian Science churches -- preach that faith is more powerful than science.

Churches have lobbied against HB2494 for months. On Monday, church representatives contacted Kitzhaber's office to voice concerns that followers will be prosecuted simply for practicing faith healing, not just for faith healing that harms a child or contributes to a child's death. Kitzhaber said the bill is not intended to penalize church members for their belief in the power of prayer.

The new legislation will substantially change the way church members practice their faith, said Russ Briggs, who grew up as a member of the Followers of Christ Church in Oregon City. Briggs left the church after his two infant sons died because the church forbids modern medical care.

"A lot of this law has to do with what they're founded on," said Briggs, who has fought for the bill. "That's a big issue: mind over matter, soul over sickness."

Neither followers active in the church nor Terry Gustafson, the Clackamas County district attorney who said she couldn't prosecute the parents of an 11-year-old who died in 1998 because of flaws in Oregon's law, could be reached for comment.

In a series of stories that year, The Oregonian investigated the deaths of three children and found that of the more than 70 children buried since 1955 in a Followers of Christ cemetery just outside Oregon City, at least 21 would have lived with medical intervention.

The faith-healing debate started as soon as the legislative session began in January. Many lawmakers were furious about the deaths of the 70 children in the Followers of Christ church, Briggs' former congregation.

But religious conservatives in the legislature objected to the typical 75-month minimum sentence, saying the penalty was too harsh for parents who pose no threat to the public and mean no harm to anybody. Doing away with the minimum sentence forced legislators to make their second exception to Measure 11, a voter-approved 1994 initiative that set minimum sentences for certain violent crimes.

In the end, the faith healing bill soared through both chambers, with 24-2 approval in the Senate and 49-5 passage in the House. Supporters say the real test will come when a case first goes to trial. In the meantime, they'll concentrate on educating the public.

"I've said all the way along, it doesn't have to do with the parents being punished, it has to do with saving the children," Briggs said. "If the law is used, it means a child has suffered. I'd rather people just say, 'The state has spoken, I better listen.' "

From The Oregonian of Saturday, March 22, 2008 -- Child's death may put faith law to test: Oregon City parents could face charges for failing to seek medical help for an ill child
By Jessica Bruder and Dana Tims

The case of a 15-month-old Oregon City girl who died for lack of medical treatment could become the first test of a state law that disallows faith healing at the expense of a child's life.

Ava Worthington died March 2 at home from bacterial bronchial pneumonia and infection, according to Dr. Christopher Young, a deputy state medical examiner. He said both conditions could have been prevented or treated with antibiotics.

The child's breathing was further compromised by a benign cyst that had never been medically addressed and could have been removed from her neck, Young said.

Child-abuse detectives recently referred investigative findings to prosecutors, who are evaluating the case in light of a law passed in 1999 after several faith-healing deaths of children.

"This is the first time that they could be taking a shot at interpreting the law," said state Senate President Peter Courtney, who carried the contentious bill on the Senate floor nearly a decade ago. He said the Worthington case is giving him "flashbacks."

"Kids were dying. Kids were suffering," he said. "Kids who have no choice over these things."

If prosecuted, Ava Worthington's parents would be the first members of Oregon City's Followers of Christ, a fundamentalist Christian denomination, to face criminal charges for failing to seek medical treatment for a gravely ill child.

Of dozens of children buried since the 1950s in the Followers of Christ Church cemetery south of Oregon City, at least 21 could have been saved by medical intervention, according to a 1998 analysis by The Oregonian. None of the deaths from that era, including the high-profile case of an 11-year-old boy who died from untreated diabetes, resulted in prosecution.

The Followers of Christ deaths prompted a firestorm in the 1999 state Legislature over religious freedom, parental rights and the state's responsibility to protect children. After months of debate, legislators passed a compromise bill that emerged in the final days of the session and was quickly signed into law by Gov. John Kitzhaber.

Since the law passed, Courtney and others said they haven't heard of any Oregon cases involving children who died because their parents chose prayer over medical care. "I really thought we'd resolved it," he said.

The 1999 law eliminated Oregon's "spiritual-healing defense" in cases of second-degree manslaughter, first - and second-degree criminal mistreatment and nonpayment of child support.

Greg Horner, Clackamas County chief deputy district attorney, said it's too early to know what, if any, charges the parents could face. "We are reviewing the case, and our investigation is progressing," Horner said.

A private family

Horner, along with officials at the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office and the state medical examiner's office, declined to identify the parents, disclose whether other children are in the home or discuss details of the investigation.

According to property and other public records, Carl Brent Worthington, 28, and Raylene Marie Worthington, 25, own the single-story home in the 21600 block of South Crestview Drive where Ana Worthington died. Attempts to reach the Worthingtons at their home were unsuccessful.

Neighbors up and down the dead-end Oregon City street said they knew something had occurred when at least 100 cars and trucks claimed every parking space on the street for three to four days straight.

"Both before and after her death, folks were down there around the clock," said Ron Sherk, a 35-year-resident of the quiet neighborhood. "At all hours of the day and night, people just kept coming and going."

Sherk said he knows many of his neighbors, but he had never seen Ava's parents outside their house.

"They were very private people," he said. "But this is terrible. It's a tragedy, especially since her condition was apparently so very treatable."

A few doors away, Dick Ellis, another longtime area resident, said he spoke with Ava's parents three days ago, when he returned their wandering kitten.

"They both seemed very nice and were extremely pleased to get their kitten back," said Ellis, a retired Clackamas County corrections officer. "I'm not one to judge anyone else, so I can't really say what should or shouldn't happen at this point."

At nearby Carus Cemetery, owned by the Followers of Christ Church, fresh earth marked the spot where Ava was buried. Two large memorial ribbons lay against a fence next to the gravesite. Adjacent to the site is a grave marker for "Baby Boy Worthington," dated 2001.

Officials declined to comment on how the boy was associated with the family and how he might have died.

Church traditions

The Followers of Christ meet in a beige one-story building marked only by a small, hand-lettered sign near the entrance to a large parking lot.

Although several vehicles were parked in the church's lot along Molalla Avenue on Friday afternoon, no one answered the doors. Telephone calls to the Followers of Christ also went unanswered.

The Followers of Christ Church came to Oregon early in the 20th century. According to church tradition, when members become ill, fellow worshippers pray and anoint them with oil. Former members say those who seek modern medical remedies are ostracized by the group.

A former church member, who declined to be identified for fear of retribution at his place of employment, still associates with Followers of Christ at work and in the community. He said church members, which he estimated at 2,300, meet Thursday and Sunday nights to sing hymns accompanied by a pianist, with no formal preacher.

The church still practices faith healing, he said, though members became even more secretive after the unwanted attention of the late 1990s and the Legislature's removal of faith-healing protections.

"It certainly was our fervent hope that changing the laws in 1999 would change the behavior of the Followers of Christ," said Rita Swan, president of Iowa-based Children's Healthcare is a Legal Duty.

She expressed dismay at the thought of parents who rely on prayer to heal children suffering from easily treatable medical conditions:

"It means that they're very stubborn people who have decided it's more important to act out their religious beliefs than protect the life of their flesh and blood child."

From The Oregonian of Sunday, March 30, 2008 -- Echoes of faith-healing deaths: Followers of Christ members bowed to the law, but a baby's death brings charges
By Jessica Bruder

OREGON CITY -- Until the faith-healing death of an Oregon City girl this month, members of the Followers of Christ Church appear to have lost just one child to sickness since 1999, when Oregon banned parents from treating gravely ill children solely with prayer.

Tyler Duane Shaw of Oregon City died in 2003, three days short of his second birthday, of sudden complications from a throat infection. "His death was not considered to be anything but a natural death that had no indications of abuse or neglect," said Dr. Clifford Nelson, deputy state medical examiner.

Church members declined to discuss religious beliefs and practices with The Oregonian. But child abuse detectives, medical examiners and many other Clackamas County officials said they have seen signs of positive change in the church since the late 1990s, when several Followers of Christ children died from medically treatable conditions.

Since the new laws took effect in 1999, said child abuse Detective Jeff Green of the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, "We haven't seen any cases of significant medical neglect . . . until now."

Fifteen-month-old Ava Worthington died at home March 2 of bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection that could have been treated with antibiotics, according to the state medical examiner's office.

On Friday, a Clackamas County grand jury indicted her parents, Carl Brent and Raylene Worthington, on charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminal mistreatment.

Ava Worthington's death brought back memories of Followers of Christ children who suffered and died before Oregon removed religious exemptions from state child abuse and homicide laws.

Tyler Shaw's sister, 51/2-month-old Valarie Lynn Shaw, was one of three Followers of Christ children who died in 1997 and 1998 after parents tried to heal them with prayer. The deaths, all from medically treatable conditions, sparked a firestorm among state legislators, who promptly struck down legal shields for faith-healing parents.

Before the law changed, church members who got in traffic accidents would take injured children home, rather than to the hospital, leaving police frustrated but powerless to intervene, Green said.

In the two years after the law passed, detectives responded to two cases of sick or injured Followers of Christ children, Green said. One child had Crohn's disease and the other had a broken arm, which church members had tried to set themselves. In both cases, parents complied without protest when police insisted that they take their children to licensed physicians.

Green said that until this month's death of Ava Worthington, he hadn't heard of any cases over the past nine years in which a Followers of Christ child might have died because of medical neglect.

Ava Worthington's parents also lost a baby boy in August 2001, but the death investigation was closed after family members told police the child was stillborn. Several other Followers of Christ children have also been stillborn or died during home births in recent years, but none of the investigated deaths resulted in criminal charges.

"They either had gotten the point, or there hadn't been anything serious enough to rise to this level of involvement," Green said.

Working with the church

The Clackamas County district attorney's office formally reached out to Followers of Christ leaders at least twice in the past decade to make sure they understood legal requirements for pediatric medical care.

In August 1999, then-District Attorney Terry Gustafson sent a letter to the church about the new laws.

In June 2004, four or five Followers of Christ leaders met with prosecutors, police and medical examiner officials. Sitting in the district attorney's law library, the leaders listened as officials explained parental responsibilities and the investigative procedures that follow the death of a child, said Greg Horner, chief deputy district attorney, who attended the meeting.

The leaders pledged to post a memo in their church, explaining to the Followers of Christ what the law required.

"They were polite," Horner said. "They were receptive. They understood."

There hasn't been a similar meeting since 2004, and Horner said his office hasn't considered one. "I've been focusing on what's right ahead of us," he said, referring to the Worthington case.

Outsiders shunned

The Oregon City church, which is not associated with a mainstream denomination, traces its origins to the faith-healing Pentecostal movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s. After several splits over religious doctrine, Walter T. White, the charismatic nephew of one of the early founders, brought a splinter group to Oregon in the 1930s.

White died in 1969, and the last of his ordained elders died in 1986, but church members continue to meet Thursdays and Sundays in a beige one-story building marked only by a hand-lettered sign. Followers of Christ decline to speak publicly about their church, and a reporter who visited the church Thursday was turned away.

For decades, the close-knit and private Followers of Christ have shunned members who strayed from the flock. According to Valarie Shaw's 60-year-old great uncle, Darrell Shaw of Milwaukie, that's what they did after he left the church some 25 years ago, which makes it hard for him to know how they're handling sick kids these days.

"They didn't even call me when my parents passed away," he said.

Darrell Shaw left the church long before his niece died of a massive infection. He said a police officer gave him the grim news that emergency medical care could have saved her life.

When legislators sent a strong message to faith-healing parents in 1999, he said it was a relief.

"I thought they would probably take their kids to the doctor. They don't believe in breaking the law," he said.

"I figured, at least the kids will be safe now."

From The Oregonian of Tuesday, April 1, 2008 -- Trial pits religious freedom vs. child welfare: Since 1999, state law does not protect parents such as Ava Worthington's, who tried to heal with prayer
By Jessica Bruder, The Oregonian

An Oregon City couple who tried to heal their dying daughter with prayer walked hand-in-hand into a crowded Clackamas County courtroom Monday and pleaded not guilty to charges of manslaughter and criminal mistreatment.

Carl Brent Worthington, 28, and Raylene Marie Worthington, 25, are the first parents prosecuted since Oregon cracked down on faith-healing deaths nine years ago, according to legislators and legal experts. If convicted, they could spend more than six years in prison.

National advocates for religious freedom and child welfare have been following the Worthington case, and reporters shadowed the defendants from the moment they arrived Monday at the Clackamas County courthouse, flanked by attorneys.

The Worthingtons, members of Oregon City's Followers of Christ Church, barely spoke a word as Judge Kathie Steele explained the charges. In subdued voices, they answered "yes" and "yes, your honor" to acknowledge they could face prison time, then dodged television cameras as they left the courtroom.

They remain free on $250,000 bonds. A trial is set for mid-June.

Their 15-month-old daughter, Ava Worthington, died at home March 2 from bacterial bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection. Both conditions could have been treated with antibiotics, according to Dr. Christopher Young, a deputy state medical examiner. Her breathing was further compromised by a benign, four-inch cyst on her neck that had never been medically addressed, Young said.

The Followers of Christ, a non-denominational congregation with roots in the 19th-century Pentecostal movement, came under state scrutiny in the late 1990s after several church children died from medically treatable conditions. The deaths prompted the Oregon Legislature to remove religious shield laws for parents who treat gravely ill children solely with prayer, setting the stage for the Worthington case.

A spokeswoman for the Christian Science Church, which lobbied for Oregon's original faith-healing shield laws, acknowledged that the church has been following the Worthington case but declined to comment.

Shawn Peters, author of "When Prayer Fails: Faith Healing, Children and the Law," a book that includes passages on Oregon City's Followers of Christ Church, said the Worthington case "will be the test for the new law in Oregon."

Peters said it's hard to say whether faith-healing deaths are increasing or decreasing across the United States, but he noted that they are continuing. Two weeks after Ava Worthington's death, an 11-year-old Wisconsin girl died from an undiagnosed diabetic attack after her parents tried to heal her with prayer. The parents in the Wisconsin case have not been charged with a crime.

Between 1999, when the new law took effect, and the Worthington case, prosecutors found no incidents of significant medical neglect among Followers of Christ Church members.

The Worthingtons were indicted Friday after a Clackamas County grand jury heard testimony from medical examiner Young, child-abuse detective Michelle Finn, and three relatives of Carl Worthington: his parents, Guy and Julie Worthington, and his sister, Danielle Fullington.

The grand jury brought two charges: second-degree manslaughter and second-degree criminal mistreatment. The parents' "failure to provide medical care caused the death of their daughter: That's what the grand jury's charged them with," explained chief deputy district attorney Greg Horner.

The Worthingtons reportedly also have a young daughter.

The Department of Human Services confirmed that the agency has "an open case with the family, and as is normal when we have an open case, we pay attention to other children in the family, "said Greg Parker, DHS spokesman. "The family is working with us."

On Monday, a pair of defense attorneys representing the Worthingtons said they were waiting to see reports and evidence in the case and wouldn't comment on the charges.

"They're presumed innocent at this time, and we ask that no one prejudge them," said attorney John Neidig, who represents Raylene Worthington. "They have not had the time to breathe properly since this tremendous tragedy, and we hope to provide them with a little privacy and respect."

From The Oregonian of Friday, April 18, 2008 -- Faith healers fight back: An Oregon City pair cite religious freedom and use the Internet to help them battle criminal charges
By Jessica Bruder, The Oregonian

The Oregon City parents charged in the faith-healing death of their young daughter launched a counteroffensive Thursday, pledging through lawyers to defend their Constitutional right to religious freedom and unveiling a Web site aimed at rallying nationwide support.

They also plan to create a legal defense fund, their attorneys said.

"Our clients are not wealthy," defense attorney Mark Cogan said. "We surely anticipate there will be folks who want to help these people."

Cogan compared the Web site for Raylene and Carl Brent Worthington to those for other high-profile defendants, such as the Duke lacrosse players who were accused and later vindicated in a rape case. He said the Internet was the best way to disseminate accurate information because "we're getting inquiries from all over the place."

National advocacy groups and legal scholars are keeping close watch on the Worthington case, which will invoke federal religious protections and test, for the first time, a 1999 Oregon law that struck down religious shields for parents who treat their children solely with prayer.

"Prior to this prosecution of Mr. and Mrs. Worthington, no person in this state has faced charges involving the 1999 legislation," their attorneys wrote in documents made public Thursday, when the Worthingtons appeared for a bail hearing in Clackamas County Circuit Court.

The courtroom was packed with friends, relatives and fellow members of the Followers of Christ Church, whose members believe in healing the sick with prayer rather than medical care.

On March 31, the couple pleaded not guilty to charges of manslaughter and criminal mistreatment in the death of their 15-month-old daughter. Ava Worthington died at home March 2 from bacterial pneumonia and a blood infection, conditions the state medical examiner said were treatable with antibiotics.

Outside the courtroom, defense attorney John Neidig challenged the basis for criminal charges.

Ava Worthington's medical condition "might have been treatable, but not necessarily curable in conventional medical terms," Neidig said. He said the Worthingtons had used several faith-healing methods - "prayer and anointment and the laying on of hands" - to treat their daughter.

Court documents indicate the Worthingtons' defense will include "exhaustive research" into the legal history of religious protections and a team of "experts, investigators, and other professionals.

Noting the potential expense of a such a trial, defense attorneys asked the court to return their clients' bail money so they can "fully litigate the constitutionality issues in this case."

After defense witnesses testified that the Worthingtons posed no flight risk, they were each granted a reduction in bail from $250,000 to $50,000. Since they had already paid the 10 percent - or $25,000 apiece - required to be released from jail, each will receive $20,000 back from the court.

Cogan told Judge Robert Herndon that the Worthingtons have never left the country and have no passports. He touted their openness with police, reading excerpts from an interview conducted March 4, less than 48 hours after Ava died: "I think you are probably the most honest and endearing people I've met in a very long time," he quoted Detective James Rhodes telling Carl Worthington.

Neidig said the Worthingtons also cooperated with state authorities regarding their surviving child, a 4-year-old daughter.

Jessica Rhodes, a state child welfare worker, testified that the Worthingtons complied with her directive to get a medical check-up for the girl, who was found in good health and remains with the family.

Nearly three weeks ago, when the Worthingtons were in court for the first time, they exited by dashing out a side door. On Thursday, they looked more relaxed, lingering in the lobby to chat with family before descending the courthouse's front steps.

Neidig believes they're ready for the court battle to come. "They've been called upon by God to face this challenge," he said.

From The Oregonian of Thursday, June 19, 2008 -- Teen's death renews scrutiny of faith-healing group: Oregon law may protect Followers of Christ members
By Rick Bella

The painful and apparently preventable faith-healing death of a 16-year-old Oregon City boy this week brings the secretive Followers of Christ Church back under legal scrutiny, just four months after the boy's infant niece died in similar circumstances.

But unlike the girl's death, which resulted in criminal mistreatment and manslaughter charges against her mother and father, Oregon law may protect the parents of Neil Jeffrey Beagley, who under state statute was old enough to make his own medical decisions.

FAITH HEALING AND OREGON LAW

The followers of Christ Church: The Oregon City church, which is not associated with a mainstream denomination, traces its origins to the faith-healing Pentecostal movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Walter T. White, the charismatic nephew of one of the early founders, brought a splinter group to Oregon in the 1930s. White died in 1969, and the last of his ordained elders died in 1986. But church members, estimated at several hundred, continue to meet Thursdays and Sundays in a beige, one-story building marked only by a hand-lettered sign.

Faith-healing deaths: By tradition, Followers of Christ members shun medical treatment in favor of "spiritual healing." Of dozens of children buried since the 1950s in the church's cemetery south of Oregon City, at least 21 could have been saved by medical intervention, according to a 1998 analysis by The Oregonian. None of the deaths from that era resulted in prosecution.

Oregon law: Lobbied by the Christian Science Church, legislators in 1995 introduced a religious defense to Oregon's homicide statutes, protecting parents who try to heal their children with prayer. In 1997, they extended religious protections to cases of first- and second-degree manslaughter. In 1999, after a series of faith-healing deaths, legislators eliminated Oregon's "spiritual-healing defense" in certain cases of manslaughter and criminal mistreatment. Parents who exercise a religious defense remain immune from prosecution for murder.

The Worthington case: Carl Brent Worthington, 28, and Raylene Marie Worthington, 25, are the first parents prosecuted since Oregon cracked down on faith-healing deaths nine years ago. Their 15-month-old daughter, Ava Worthington, the niece of Neil Jeffrey Beagley, died at home March 2 of bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection. Both conditions could have been treated with antibiotics. The Worthingtons are scheduled for trial early next year on charges of second-degree manslaughter and second-degree criminal mistreatment. If convicted, they could spend more than six years in prison. Their attorneys have set up a Web site, www.worthingtondefense.info, aimed at rallying national support for the couple.

Beagley died Tuesday at his grandmother's home, a week after first complaining of stomach pain and shortness of breath. As Beagley's family and several dozen church members prayed for what church members call spiritual healing, the teenager deteriorated and died, according to police and medical investigators.

Dr. Cliff Nelson, Oregon deputy state medical examiner, said Wednesday that an autopsy determined Beagley died of complications from a constriction where his bladder empties into his urethra. Beagley became unable to urinate, an intensely painful condition that caused his kidneys to stop extracting urea from his bloodstream and triggered heart failure.

Nelson said the blockage, which may have been congenital, easily could have been treated. "Basically, he couldn't void," Nelson said. "But it definitely was treatable. Something as simple as catheterization (the insertion of a tube into his bladder) could have saved his life."

Nelson also said the autopsy indicated that Beagley had suffered repeated episodes of blockage and pain, probably throughout his life, with no apparent medical intervention.

"His kidneys were shot," Nelson said. "Even if his life had been saved by catheterization, he would have been a candidate for dialysis or a kidney transplant." He said a different kind of catheter, which he termed a simple "in-office procedure," could have solved the blockage problem.

"Laying on hands"

Instead, Beagley apparently suffered for at least a week. When his condition worsened Sunday, he was taken to the Gladstone home of his grandmother, Norma Beagley. Neighbors and police said more than 60 members of the Followers of Christ Church gathered there to attempt faith-healing. Church followers believe in treating illness by anointing the body in oil, "laying on hands" and praying for a cure.

Sgt. Lynne Benton, Gladstone police spokeswoman, said a church leader called the Clackamas County medical examiner's office about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday and reported that Neil Beagley had died about an hour before. Benton said investigators from Clackamas County's Major Crimes Unit then detained church and family members for interviews, which lasted until about midnight.

"We processed the scene for evidence, but there was little for us to do," Benton said. "There were no signs of trauma or suicide."

Benton said all the interviews indicated Beagley refused medical treatment.

"Unless we can disprove that," Benton said, "charges probably won't be filed in this case."

Niece also not treated

Church members declined to comment or answer any questions Wednesday.

In March, the church made national headlines when Beagley's 15-month-old niece, Ava Worthington, died at home from bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection -- conditions that medical experts deemed treatable with antibiotics.

The infant's parents, Carl and Raylene Worthington, have since pleaded not guilty in Clackamas County Circuit Court to manslaughter and criminal mistreatment. Their attorneys have indicated they will rely on a religious freedom defense and have launched a Web site, www.worthingtondefense.info, to rally nationwide support.

It's not clear whether authorities will bring charges against Neil Beagley's parents, Jeffrey Dean Beagley and Marci Rae Beagley of Oregon City, his grandmother or other church members.

"The district attorney's office is waiting for the investigation to be complete," said Gregory D. Horner, Clackamas County chief deputy district attorney. "We are researching applicable laws to make a determination."

Complex legal issue

Professor Leslie Harris, a University of Oregon law school faculty member who specializes in children and the law, said the legal issues are complicated.

Harris said Oregon law generally confers the right of consent for medical care to 15-year-olds. "But the right to consent to medical treatment may not be the same as the right to refuse medical treatment," Harris said. "Those may be very different questions."

Also unclear, Harris said, was whether the state would have to prove who decided to decline conventional medical care or whether the law would assume the choice was the boy's.

There are also questions about whether Beagley was in a position to exercise his own judgment, given his medical condition and the social pressures of his church, which has a history of shunning those who violate religious traditions.

Although Beagley was homeschooled and appeared to have little contact outside his family and church, neighbors provided glimpses into his life.

Like a lot of teenage boys, Beagley sometimes mowed the lawn in front of his cream-colored house. He was polite and had a driver's license.

Former neighbors in Oregon City said the Beagley parents and four kids were nice but generally kept to themselves. They left the neighborhood several months ago to build a new house near Beavercreek.

Lynnette Schouten, who lived next door to the family for 19 years, said she sympathized with their loss -- to a point. A mother herself, she said she could not imagine watching any of her children die in agonizing pain.

"To me, they're going through their own hell," she said. "At the same time, at what point do these kids get protected?"

Neighbors could tell someone was sick at the Beagleys' when a convoy of cars showed up, staying around the clock. They knew someone had died when the medical examiner drove up.

"I just do not believe in what they believe in," Schouten said. "I cannot understand how somebody can let their child suffer."

From The Oregonian of Friday, June 20, 2008 -- Boy's death stirs lawmakers: Oregon City case prompts legislators to give statutes on religious defenses a second look
By Rick Bella

As Clackamas County authorities started sorting out whether two Oregon City parents committed a crime by allowing their gravely ill son to choose faith healing over medical treatment, lawmakers vowed Thursday to revisit the issues raised by his death.

"We're going to have to look at it again," said Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, who helped write the 1997 and 1999 state laws that address religious defenses in faith-healing death cases.

"I know that devotion to parents and devotion to religion can be a powerful influence on a child. And in these cases, you have religious freedom, parental rights, the health of a child and medical science. Mix all of that together and you have a tough, tough issue."

Neil Jeffrey Beagley, 16, died Tuesday from complications from a urinary-tract blockage at his grandmother's home in Gladstone. He was surrounded by his family and dozens of other members of Oregon City's Followers of Christ Church, a nondenominational congregation that shuns medical treatment in favor of spiritual healing. Those in attendance told police that despite his painful and prolonged suffering, Beagley chose to be treated solely with prayer.

Prosecutors said Thursday that it will take time to research how current Oregon laws on religious defense, parental responsibility and medical consent apply to this case.

"We're doing a complete analysis," said Gregory D. Horner, Clackamas County chief deputy district attorney. "We probably won't have all of that worked out until next week."

The case is complicated by a 1971 law that gave children 15 and older the right to seek medical care independent of their parents. The law was intended, in part, to give girls access to birth-control information, contraceptives and abortions. The law was expanded in 1977 to include access to treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and in 1985 to include mental health and substance abuse.

Legal experts differ

Legal and ethical questions raised by the boy's death and the 1971 law are prompting a spirited debate. While not expressly stated in state statutes, some believe the right to seek medical care also grants the right to refuse medical care.

"The question boils down to: At what point is a person competent enough to exercise a treatment choice?" said Michael E. Rose, a Portland attorney who specializes in post-conviction relief and criminal defense. "If, under the law, you are competent enough to seek out needed treatment, then certainly you are competent enough to decline medical treatment."

Silverton lawyer Doug Brown, who has taught medical malpractice and ethics at Chemeketa Community College, disagreed. "The bottom line is the child can get medical care," said Brown, who helps to train emergency medical technicians. "But in no way can you (the child) reject medical care."

Beagley's blockage, which he might have had since birth, easily could have been treated by inserting a catheter tube past the obstruction, a deputy state medical examiner said after conducting an autopsy. A more elaborate version of the procedure might have offered a permanent cure, Dr. Cliff Nelson said.

Nelson said Beagley apparently suffered from the blockage for years, damaging his kidneys until they failed, leading to uremic poisoning and heart failure.

Instead, however, after complaining of stomach pains and shortness of breath for a week, Beagley was taken to the home of his grandmother, Norma Louise Beagley, where more than 60 Followers of Christ Church members held a faith-healing session that included anointing the boy with oil, "laying on of hands" and praying for a cure.

The church, which is not affiliated with a mainstream congregation, traces its origins to the Pentecostal movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Niece's parents charged

Beagley's death came less than four months after his 15-month-old niece, Ava Worthington, died in similar circumstances. The girl died of treatable bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection that could have been cleared up with antibiotics. Her parents, Carl and Raylene Worthington, are facing charges of manslaughter and criminal mistreatment.

A Portland TV station reported Wednesday that the state Department of Human Services responded to complaints about the way Beagley's parents, Jeffrey Dean Beagley and Marci Rae Beagley, treated children in the family. However, Jerry Buzzard, who manages the DHS office in Oregon City, declined to confirm or deny the report, citing privacy concerns for clients.

Rita Swan, president of the Iowa-based nonprofit, Children's Healthcare Is a Legal Duty, said her group is watching the case.

"If Oregon says there's no duty to give a child medical treatment, that would be obscene," Swan said. "I can't believe that Oregon is that bad."

From The Oregonian of Friday, Oct. 3, 2008 -- Faith-healing case in court: The parents of a teen who died after not receiving medical treatment face homicide charges
By Steve Mayes

An Oregon City couple who tried to heal their gravely ill son with prayer will appear in court today in a case that could test Oregon laws on religious freedom, parental responsibility and the rights of teenagers to make their own medical decisions.

Jeffrey Dean Beagley, 50, and Marci Rae Beagley, 46, surrendered to Clackamas County authorities on Thursday, a day after they were indicted by a grand jury on charges of criminally negligent homicide.

The Beagleys could not be reached for comment.

Their son, 16-year-old Neil Jeffrey Beagley, died June 17 of complications from a urinary-tract blockage. A deputy state medical examiner said the boy apparently suffered for years from the intensely painful but medically treatable condition. The blockage ultimately caused kidney failure, uremic poisoning and heart failure, according to autopsy results.

The Beagley family belongs to the Followers of Christ Church in Oregon City, a nondenominational congregation that shuns medical treatment in favor of spiritual healing, which involves anointing the body in oil, "laying on hands" and praying for a cure.

When Neil Beagley died at his grandmother's Gladstone home, he was surrounded by dozens of church and family members. Some of those present told police that Neil Beagley, despite his prolonged suffering, chose faith healing over medical care.

If it goes to trial, the case is likely to draw national attention, said Marci A. Hamilton, a law professor and author of the book "God vs. the Gavel," which explores conflicts between society and the laws intended to protect religious freedoms.

"Increasingly, prosecutors and grand juries are becoming less willing to turn a blind eye to child suffering or death when it is religiously motivated," said Hamilton, who teaches at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City. "We are in the midst of a coming civil rights movement for children. The willingness to prosecute for the death of a child in a religious circumstance is part and parcel of that."

Beagley's death came less than four months after his 15-month-old niece, Ava Worthington, died in similar circumstances from treatable bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection that could have been cleared up with antibiotics.

Her parents, Carl and Raylene Worthington, go to trial Jan. 26 on charges of manslaughter and criminal mistreatment.

Before taking the Beagley case to a grand jury, prosecutors spent months researching the tangle of Oregon laws relevant to the case.

Under a law passed in 1971, children 15 and older have the right to seek medical care independent of their parents. The law was intended, in part, to give girls access to birth-control information, contraceptives and abortions. It was later expanded to cover treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, mental health and substance abuse.

While not expressly stated in state statutes, some legal experts believe the right to seek medical care also grants the right to refuse medical care.

Oregon law also offers some religious-defense protections for parents who try to heal their children with prayer, but those exemptions have changed over time.

In 1995, lobbied by the Christian Science Church, Oregon legislators introduced a religious defense to Oregon's homicide statutes. In 1997, they extended religious protections to cases of first- and second-degree manslaughter.

Then in 1999, after a series of faith-healing deaths involving the Followers of Christ, legislators eliminated Oregon's "spiritual-healing defense" in certain cases of manslaughter and criminal mistreatment.

According to a 1998 analysis by The Oregonian, at least 21 of the dozens of children buried since the 1950s in the Followers of Christ church cemetery south of Oregon City could have been saved by medical intervention. None of the deaths from that era resulted in prosecution.

Oregon law gives parents the right to determine their children's religious upbringing.

Prosecutors will have to prove that reasonable medical care was withheld, and the defense may have to show that Neil Beagley made an independent decision to forgo medical treatment, said Jenny Cooke, an Oregon City defense attorney who has handled numerous homicide cases.

The maximum penalty for criminally negligent homicide in Oregon is 10 years in prison, although sentencing guidelines call for a lesser penalties, ranging from probation to 18 months in prison.

A judge refused to drop criminal charges Thursday against an Oregon City couple, rejecting their argument that prosecution in the faith-healing death of their daughter would violate their religious freedom and parental rights.

Carl and Raylene Worthington are charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminal mistreatment in the death of their 15-month-old daughter, Ava. The girl died at home in March 2008 of bacterial pneumonia and a blood infection, conditions that could have been treated with antibiotics.

"It's a grave injustice for (the Worthingtons) to have to defend themselves" from criminal charges that are "an extreme violation of their rights of freedom to worship," defense attorney Mark Cogan said.

The Worthingtons belong to the Followers of Christ Church. The Oregon City congregation shuns doctors, hospitals and standard medical care in favor of spiritual healing, such as prayer and the laying on of hands.

About 40 church members attended the hearing and took up almost every seat in the small courtroom.

"I do not feel we are on unplowed legal ground," said Clackamas County Circuit Judge Steven L. Mauer. "Parents' rights to make decisions on behalf of their children are not without constitutionally permissible boundaries."

Mauer noted that the state constitution offers strong protection for religious freedoms and that in writing laws to address such cases legislators worked to find a balance between religious freedoms and the state's interest in protecting children.

The Worthingtons were originally scheduled for trial Jan. 26, but that will be delayed to accommodate witnesses who weren't available.

The Worthingtons are related to Jeffrey and Marci Beagley of Oregon City, who face charges of criminally negligent homicide in the faith-healing death of their 16-year-old son, Neil. The boy died of complications from a urinary tract blockage last year. The Beagleys go to trial in June.